The Sword of Damocles by Ira Schwartz

“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”

-John F. Kennedy (JFK)

In an address before the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 25, 1961

President Kennedy knew the dangers of nuclear weapons as did Eisenhower, L.B.J. Reagan, Clinton and George H.W. Bush. Ever since President Truman let the genie out of the bottle during World War ll world leaders have been trying to get him back in. 11 treaties to control the development and use of nuclear weapons have been enacted and adhered to since 1961*. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) enacted in 1968 currently has 189 countries as signatories, including China, Russia and the United States. Clearly the world is concerned and has been trying to do something to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons for over 50 years.

But whole scale nuclear war is no longer the threat it used to be. Both Russia and China know such a war is not winnable. The real threat now is not nuclear war but nuclear attack from a terrorist group armed with a suitcase size nuclear device.

A report issued by the Combat Terrorist Center at West Point breaks it down like this;

“Within the counterterrorism context, it may mean that the United States missiles have the capability of hitting small, hard to find targets. Ideally, nuclear weapons make the cost of offensive action unimaginable, but this may not be true for all terror groups. Far from being deterred by threats to use nuclear weapons, terrorist may view the cost of nuclear war as lower than the political costs of backing down from a deterred threat. These factors make the deterrence of terrorist groups problematic. 2”

The Council on Foreign Relations issued a report titled, “Deterring State Sponsorship of Nuclear Terrorism.” In that report they state:

“Analysts have long argued that the central pillar of Cold War strategy—deterring nuclear war by threat of overwhelming punishment—is largely irrelevant in efforts to prevent the use of nuclear weapons by terrorist groups. They contend that the threat of retaliation is ineffective because bombs carried across borders or shipped in cargo containers lack the clear return addresses of warheads mounted on missiles, and terrorist groups, unlike states, do not present clear targets for retaliation.”

This would seem to be proven true by the 911 attack on the World Trade Center. Our nuclear weapons didn’t seem to slow them down one bit.

Speaking about nuclear weapons let’s take a little closer look at our arsenal. According to the “Office of the Deputy Assistance to the Secretary of Defense on Nuclear Matters”3 the majority of our ICBM arsenal is made up of Minute Man lll’s. The Minuteman lll was first deployed in 1969 and still employs a gimbaled inertial guidance system. Even with its new 5 Billion dollar upgrades it’s still hardly state of the art. This missile was designed to take out a city not a smaller target like the base of a terrorist organization making it impractical to use in the war on terrorism.

Most, if not all terrorists are prepared to die for their cause. And they are happy to take as many innocent people with them as they can. They could care less what the rest of the world does to their families or country. In their eyes the more people that die for their cause the greater the glory. So saying we will use nuclear weapons in retaliation to a large scale biological, chemical or nuclear attack on America by a non state sponsored terrorist group, and most are, is an empty threat at most.

This new treaty, “Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms” signed by President Obama and Russian President Medvedev simply builds on the foundations of all the past treaties. It also states several things in writing most of the world already knew. The United States will not strike any country first and will not use nuclear weapons against any country that does not have nuclear capabilities. The big exception to this rule is; said country must be a signatory of the Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Both North Korea and Iran are not. This treaty also reduces US and Russian nuclear arsenals by 30%. That is a good thing.

Does this diminish our National Security? The military doesn’t think so, they are behind it 100%. At the White House news conference, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said,

"Through the trust it engenders, the cuts it requires and the flexibility it preserves, this treaty enhances our ability to do that which we have been charged to do: protect and defend the citizens of the United States," Mullen said. "I am as confident in its success as I am in its safeguards."

Besides we still have plenty of nukes to go around. What this does do is take us a few steps further away from nuclear annihilation of the human race and should allow us all to sleep a little better. And as far as not trusting Barack Obama to do the right thing? Remember even a broken clock is right twice a day. This just might be one of those days.

http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/timeline/treaties.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty

http://www.ctc.usma.edu/pdf/Terrorist_Deterrence.pdf

http://www.acq.osd.mil/ncbdp/nm/USNuclearDeterrence.html

Copyright 2010 by Ira Schwartz.  All Rights Reserved.  Used with Permission

Another 9/11 Travesty

A little more than eight years ago, a group of Muslim Terrorists attacked Americans on American soil. In the end, more than 3,000 innocent civilian Americans were dead. The attack on that day was just that: an attack. A well planned and executed military attack that murdered thousands of people.

This morning, another travesty relating to 9/11 occurred. President Obama and his loyal minion, Attorney General Eric Holder decided that the War Criminals who were responsible for 9/11 would be tried as civilians in a Federal Courtroom in lower Manhattan, a few blocks from their main and most deadly attack that day. A few blocks from Hallowed Ground.

I am angry. As all of you know from this column, I try to be fair and balanced in my arguments. I do not allow anger to rule the day. But today, I am angry. The Obama Administration has now decided that these War Criminals should have the same rights and privileges as ordinary citizens.

The ramifications of this are obvious. It is just another example of the appeasement and weakness of the Obama Administration and his policies. I want you all to remember the last time appeasement was used in the late 1930’s. After that travesty fifty million people were dead including six million innocent Jews. The last time we were weak was during the Carter Administration. The result, American held hostage for more than one year.

Having the trials of these War Criminals in civilian courtrooms will allow these hate mongers to abuse and mock the American citizens and families of those they have left tortured and depressed for eight years. The trials will be subject to public scrutiny and will be a media circus like that of Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson. National security measures will be made public and National Intelligence Techniques, not all of which are water boarding, will be made public. Relevant evidence will not be admitted because of technical issues on the rule of evidence. These War Criminals may actually be let free.

The Bush Administration, even with all of its faults, kept us safe. Just last week, another terrorist attack occurred at Ft. Hood on American soil. That left 13 Americans dead and more than 25 wounded. President Obama did not even call it a terrorist attack. He was too concerned about the feelings of the terrorists to say what it really was. And today, this travesty.

I urge all of you to go this website, click on the badge and sign the petition:  http://www.thebravest.com/

Ronald Reagan said it best, “peace through strength.” Maybe Obama should listen and learn. After all he claims to be a pragmatist.

© 2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to copy will be freely granted upon request.

The Keystone Cops by Ira Schwartz

Today was a somber day at Ft. Hood Texas as the soldiers and civilians killed and wounded in the horrific shooting there were honored. It was just last week on November 5th at 1:34 pm (CST) that the mundane routine of the sprawling military base in Killeen Texas was shattered by the sound of gunfire. When the smoke cleared 11 were dead and 32 lay wounded (two of the wounded later died at the hospital). The gunman, U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was himself seriously wounded by two civilian police officers. Unconfirmed reports flew across the media and internet; was this yet another terrorist attack or a crazed gunman acting on his own? Now that a fair amount of the facts have surfaced it appears to be a little of both.

So why would an Army Major, trained to treat combat related psychological injuries, calmly walk into a readiness area and start shooting.

Military records show Nidal Malik Hasan received his appointment to the Army as a first lieutenant in June 1997 after graduating from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Six years later, he graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Soon after, signs of a growing problem within Hasan began to surface. Several colleagues reported that Hasan was consistently expressing his opposition to the Iraq and Afghan wars. Nothing was ever done.

In 2007, Hasan turned a medical presentation at Walter Reed into tirade on Islam. He said, according to the Washington Post, "It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims." Again nothing was done.

It appears our intelligence community also knew about Hasan troubles. The FBI began an “assessment” of him in December of 2008 that continued into early 2009. They deemed him not to be a threat. Does this sound familiar? If not, it should. Our intelligence community was caught napping before 911 too.

According to “The Washington Post” Federal authorities (FBI) were aware for years that suspected terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden were receiving flight training at schools in the United States and abroad.

Cox News – reported a memo written by a Phoenix FBI agent two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks linked Arab flight students to a radical Islamic group in England that has ties to alleged "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid. And the list goes on.

Now 8 years later it has happened again. Let’s check and see what piqued the FBI’s curiosity with Nidal Malik Hasan.

Military officials told CNN that intelligence agencies intercepted communications from Hasan to Anwar al-Awlaki and shared them with other U.S. government agencies. Anwar al-Awlaki is a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb and is the center where Hasan went to pray. Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s. Even with this information the federal authorities dropped the inquiry into Hasan's communications when a member of one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces determined "that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center [in Washington]."

So according to the JTTF it’s okay for a Major in the US Military, who’s feelings are known to be against the war in the Middle East, to communicate with a known terrorist collaborator not once, not twice but some twenty times. Also a search of Hasan’s computer uncovered that he had been visiting several Islamic extremist websites.

Sadly it appears we have learned nothing in the eight years since 911. Despite the creation of The Office of Homeland Security, the catch all basin for terrorist threats, important information still seems to be slipping between the cracks. Well, maybe not slipping between the cracks as much as being brushed aside. Maybe our intelligence experts aren’t all that intelligent or all that expert. Maybe it’s time our government took a long, hard look at exactly who is responsible for gathering and processing the data that concerns the welfare and security of the American people.

Thirteen people are dead and thirty are wounded. Nidal Malik Hasan may have done the shooting but our Intelligence Community certainly put the bullets in the gun.

As a post script to this story FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that his organization will be investigating itself to see if the Bureau mishandled the investigation into Hasan. Nothing like an organization investigating itself to find the truth. Now there’s a report I’d love to see.

©2009 by Ira Schwartz. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.

Hallowed Ground by Ira Schwartz

It was a crisp, clear September morning in New York City, the kind of morning most New Yorkers looked forward to as they perspired through the heat and humidity of August. Millions of people settled in for a normal day at work; millions of people went about their daily routine never realizing that today, Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 would be the day America was changed forever.

At 8:46 am, the normal hustle and bustle of rush hour in downtown New York came to a horrifying stop as American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade center. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03, United Airlines flight 175 slammed into the South Tower. Minutes later hundreds of emergency personnel responded to the calls for help.

While the drama in New York unfolded on National Television a second American Airlines Flight #77 dove into the pentagon at 9:37 am and 26 minutes later at 10:03 am a fourth airliner, United Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Several days after the attacks it was confirmed that passengers aboard Flight 93 tried to regain control of the aircraft from the terrorists and if the plane hadn’t crashed it was destined to hit the White House. By 10:30 am all the attacks were over and both towers of the World Trade Center were piles of burning debris. An hour later all commercial aircraft flying over the United States had been grounded and fighters patrolled our skies. Twenty five days later we would be at war in Afghanistan.

It would take several years before the world would know the full cost of this cowardly attack. 2,751 innocent fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, wives and husbands were killed at the World Trade center. Among those were 343 firefighters and 60 NYPD and Port Authority police who ran into the building to save people’s lives. 184 died at the pentagon crash site and another 40 perished in that field in Pennsylvania.

If the terrorists that planned this attack thought the United States would simply roll over and cower under a rock as a result of 911 they, like many before them, were making a terrible mistake. The Germans and Japanese made the same mistake in World War II; Muammar Gaddafi did it in the Gulf of Sidra in 1986; Saddam Hussein did it when he invaded Kuwait in 1990 and now it’s Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah's turn. Many say the United States simply does not understand the people of the Middle East. I say it is the Middle Eastern countries that fail to understand the people of the United States. Americans can scream and yell at each other, even severely criticize their leaders but when you threaten us we unite as one behind our government.

When Admiral Yamamoto wrote those now famous words after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" the rest of the world should have been listening. If they had a lot of innocent people might be alive today. If they had we wouldn’t be entrenched in a war to ferret out the nest of rats that planned this cowardly attack. But these cowards will be found and they will be brought to justice. But they also need to be made an example for the rest of the world to see; a warning that if you mess with the United States or its people we will find you and you will be punished.

After the attack on the World Trade Center New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said “Tomorrow New York is going to be here. And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before... I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us.” I hope this time the rest of the world is listening.

In Memoriam 9/11/2001
May they all rest in peace and May We Never Forget

©2009 by Ira Schwartz